“I think it’s not been the easiest and straightforward ride so far but I feel that there’s more potential in this car, there’s more potential in the team.

“As I said, I’m part of the team so I’m flattered by what he’s trying to say but I think we need to stick together, we need to work hard and even if it would be nice to flip a coin and turn things around, probably for everybody’s sake except those two guys, it’s not going to happen overnight.

“We need to work hard and pay a lot of attention to small things, to details in order to get closer and once we are matched I think we can put a lot more pressure on them.

“I will have a lot closer races but currently we are sitting too far away, behind Mercedes and probably a match on average with Red Bull is not where we want to be.”